Overview

Presently, the computer systems software development is more and more often adjusted to the cultural and language peculiarities of a specific country and nation. In different countries, different alphabets and rules for coding currency units, date, time, numbers, etc. are in use. Sorting algorithms for verbal texts present a special kind of problem. The solutions represented in the standard are based on international standards and conform with draft standards in preparation, such as ISO new code tables, the UNIX standard project POSIX, also national language support facilities of the IBM and Microsoft companies. Making the choices standardizing code tables and keyboard layout, international agreements that seemed to be closest to the conditions of Estonia and Latvia were chosen, making only a minimum of necessary changes. For this reason, the code tables presented in the standard do not include the letter c with caron and cyrillic letters, which have some practical importance for the Estonian and Latvian cultural environment.

Market Profile

Following the general development of the national economy in Latvia and the introduction of new technologies, the Latvian IT sector began to flourish. Demand for the most up to date equipment is high, and system sophistication is rapidly increasing. The total domestic IT market has experienced steady growth during recent years and is now estimated at $150 million. Computer software has 12% of the IT market with a value of approximately $18 million. Generally, the emphasis within the Latvian IT sector is shifting from physical infrastructure (hardware and telecommunications networks) to value-added services and advanced software solutions. The technical, commercial, and political infrastructure affecting the IT sector in Latvia is rapidly developing towards Western standards. One of the most important target areas for IT development in Latvia is the outsourcing of software development. There are now over 100 software development companies in Latvia, and software professionals have developed a wide variety of systems ranging from financial and corporate management systems to database and library systems.

The protection of intellectual property rights is still insufficient in the Baltic region. Counterfeit software products are sold in large quantities and even local industrial production of counterfeit products and other illegal reproductions occur frequently. The government of Latvia has made several modifications to the Intellectual Property and Copyright Law with regard to computer software, pending the parliament's approval, and Latvia has also signed the WTO Information Technology Agreement. According to trade source estimates, the majority of software sold in Latvia is still counterfeit, in both illegal imports and local production. Legally imported software comes mostly from the United States.

Market access: There are no restrictions or non-tariff barriers regarding the import of software products. All products regardless of origin, are subject to an 18% Value Added Tax. There are no customs duties on most computer software products, and the remaining duties will be eliminated in the future, in accordance with WTO's Information Technology Agreement (15).

End-user profile

The primary customer bases for software are in the public sector, including the transportation and transit industries and financial institutions. In the long run, software use is expected to grow in other industries including commercial companies and individuals use (16).
 

Telecommunications	Privatization and Deregulation	Internet Activity	Electronic Commerce
Hardware Manufacturing	Software Development	IT Usage	IT Labor Market
IT Geographics	IT Financing	Government Policies	Legal Environment
IT Strengths and Weaknesses	Impact on Business	Sources and Links	About the Authors

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